The basic design of both manual and automatic food slicers has proven to be quite effective and durable throughout the years. Although various important improvements have been made to such slicers, the overall design has not changed very much particularly with regard to the overall cleanliness, ergonomics, or ease of operation.
Today, food slicers are utilized to slice a number of food products such as meats, cheeses and the like in a variety of environments such as delicatessens, supermarkets, and restaurants to name a few. Such food slicers need to be quite durable since they tend to be used for many hours during a day by many different individuals while providing the desired performance, safety and cleanliness.
Additionally, food slicers need to be designed to allow adaptability since they need to handle a variety of products of different shapes, sizes, and textures while readily providing slices of different thicknesses of the product being sliced. The speed at which a particular product is moved across the cutting blade can also vary on automatic food slicers to improve productivity.
Gravity food slicers with reciprocating food product tables typically have a feature called a “pusher” that engages the food product on its top surface or end opposite the blade to assist in holding the food product and increase its stability during slicing and movement of the food product table. When a long piece of food product is to be sliced (such as a long salami or the like) pushers can be removed or rotated out of the way to enable slicing of the long food product.
For some food product, typically those with a “high aspect ratio” (tall and thin), a product fence can be used to hold and stabilize the food product during slicing. Product fences typically are multi-piece assemblies made from cast aluminum, metal or both that rely on a thumb screw or the like for attachment to the product table and holding the fence in a desired position.